During the week activists of the AAtW were involved with prisoners support - both Israelis and Palestinians, and Refusnics struggle. On Friday we mobilized to Bilin, Ma'asara, Nabi Saleh, Ni'ilin, and Sheikh Jarrah. Media: '“Israel recognizes the threat of the popular movement and its potential for expanding,” said Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli anarchist and spokesman of the of the (Palestinian west bank) Popular Struggle Coordination Committee. Israel tougher line: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/world/middleeast/29pa....html'. Part of tougher line: Thursday pre-dawn arrest in Bil'in of Mohamed Khatib the coordinator of the Committee. On Saturday comrades accompany shepherds in confronting efforts of driving away Palestinian shepherds and farmers from their lands. in South Mt. Hebron. [Italiano]

This Friday state forces did not try to block our way to the demonstration against the separation fence and occupation. About 40 of us of the Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall initiative joined internationals, Palestinians who came to Bil'in (including few dignitaries) and of course increased number of the village in response to the arrest of Mohamed Khatib the day before, and international media agencies too). After the usual march we arrived at the gate of the separation fence. Short time after the speeches, state forces started with noise grenades, tear-gas canisters and later added rubber-coated steel bullets. As the wind this Friday was not friendly to us, the acrid tear gas forced most of us few hundred meters back.

The state force escalated this week their new policy and crossed the fence in big number and "toured" the area on the fringe of the built area and even the main street. Tear and sound grenades were used against youth who expressed their unwelcoming by stones...

This Friday we suffered a lot from the new and intense acrid tear gas, but none was seriously wounded or arrested.

Previous Friday:
Interview in Ma'asara with Israeli activist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPA48zuWfm8
After Ma'asara village's weekly demonstration against Israel's apartheid wall and illegal settlements, women from the village sing about having no fear of the violence being used against them; soldiers remain on a Palestinian family's rooftop; and an Israeli activist talks about communicating with soldiers at weekly demonstrations in Palestine.

Friday

Once again Palestinian, Israeli and international activists gathered in Ma'asara for this week's Friday demonstration. Marking the anniversary to the assassination of Palestinian leader George Habash, the demonstration was joined by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, including Tawfiq Tirawy.

The 70 or so demonstrators marched from the center of the village to the sound of drums, passed a lone military jeep stationed at the entrance to the village, and preceded towards the route of the Apartheid Wall. As usual they were met by barbed wire laid on the road and a row of (mainly reservist) soldiers.

Speeches were made in English, French, Arabic and Hebrew, and slogans chanted for half an hour. On their way back to the village, the demonstrators stopped in front of the lone jeep, fearing an incursion. Two more jeeps quickly joined the first one, and armed soldiers threatened the demonstrators. Choosing to de-escalate the situation, the demonstrators backed into the village peacefully, and the army left shortly after.

NABI SALEH

Previous Friday (22-1-10) report: In An Nabi Saleh about 100 Palestinian protesters from the village and the neighboring village Dir Nizam, as well as their international and Israeli supporters, gathered in the center of the village and started marching toward the land and water spring that are being confiscated from them by the neighboring settlement Halamish, with the support of the occupation army. While the demonstrators were still marching inside the village, the IOF started attacking the demo indiscriminately from various directions shooting tear gas, terrorizing the remaining residents of the village, who were then destined to suffocation and closure, with no escape option. For two hours the IOF attack on the village continued as some of the protesters tried to push back the soldiers by throwing stones at them. Once the army shot dozens of tear gas canisters from a cannon towards the middle of the village. The army also shot rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition. 6 demonstrators were injured. The army also arrested 6 protesters, among them 3 Palestinian women and one Israeli Jew, who was released after an hour due to his privileged origin and status. One Palestinian woman was release in the morning after and the rest, as of Tuesday, are still in detention without seeing a judge.
See this too: http://hagada.org.il/hagada/html/modules.php?name=News&...=7232
Nabi Saleh on Ynet http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3839256,00.html
Video of officer cursing in Nabi Saleh http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gGQP2JKR14\

This Friday

In An Nabi Salih, the neighboring village Deir Nidham was under curfew so it was not able to hold the parallel demonstration as it has in the past few weeks. The demonstration was well attended and as it started to march out of the village towards the lands it was met with several border police jeeps parked next to the last houses of the village. The marchers resisted the provocation of the invasion and sat down on the road and chanted and sang songs. Slowly the marchers inched their way towards the jeeps still only chanting and singing. At a certain point, without a single pretext give the army began to shoot tear gas at the demonstrators.

The army and border police were equipped with a variety of weapons including the multiple canister tear gas launcher, 'the skunk' : an organic compound design to have a foul odor shot through a water canon as plastic coated well as metal balls shot in place of the 'ordinary' rubber coated metal bullets.

At some point in the demonstration, the border police deliberately targeted a house close to the road which had large easy to hit windows. They shot at least one tear gas canister into the house causing about 20 people to be trapped inside without the ability to escape the gas. The victims included Young children and old women. To get away from the suffocating gas, young children were passed down from a third story window to people who climbed the side of the house. At the end of the day 8 people were taken to hospital, mostly from tear gas inhalation.

Although this Friday was only the fourth protest of its kind, Nabi Salah has fast become a hub of the popular struggle, adopting the non-violent principles of its sister movements in Bilin and Ni’lin.

On 22-1-10 Friday in Ni'ilin, some 150 demonstrators marched to the route of the wall to demonstrate there against the annexation and the aggressive suppression campaign held against the village. For the last nights, some 16 of the village youth were arrested in military night raids. And yet – the villagers alongside the international & Israeli supporters who once again joined the demonstration after crossing fields by foot, went on demonstrating and resisting the soldier's invasion to the village fields for hours.

This Friday

in Ni'lin, about 150 protesters headed to the wall route after the Friday prayer. The demonstration marked prisoner day, and aside from the religious sermon, the participants heard speeches by Salah Khawaja, the Village legendary medic, and Dr. Mustafa Barghouty. The group arrived at the gate and was greeted by the soldiers guarding it with a volley of tear gas grenades. Some of the protesters then responded with stones, while others expressed their opposition to the land theft by chanting slogans against the wall and by raising posters produced by the Ni'lin Media Group. After approximately an hour and a half, a group of soldiers crossed the wall, and two soldiers, apparently from a special unit, armed with hand guns and fired in the air while they ran after the group of protesters and arrested a person visiting Ni'ilin from yabrud. The village youth continued resisting the army's invasion for another two hours, and the protest ended with no injuries recorded aside from tear gas inhalation.

The Israeli Zionist left support to the joint struggle of the anarchists against the separation fence and occupation was for years limited to subtle activities like giving more space to our people and our activities in the media, enhancement of the "democracy for Jews", so the state will allow us access to the locations of actions, be lenient when we break their laws and will restrict the physical harm they cause us and our Palestinian partners in the joint actions.
(Till now only three of us detained to more than 40 hours and served longer time in jail - as they refused alternatives. Only 19 of our Palestinian partners were murdered - but non of the Israelis. Among the two scores of Israelis hit by rubber coated bullets and grenades only few needed hospitalization and only 3 suffered chronic health damage.)

Real participation of the Zionist left in our struggle was mainly restricted to media cover missions, and participation of thousands of them (once mainly, but few hundreds came more than once) as individuals in the Friday demonstrations against the separation fence in Bil'in (that even the Israeli highest court of "justice" decreed that it must be moved few hundreds meters to the west...)

The involvement of the Israeli Zionist left in the struggle in Sheikh Jarrah is a qualitative escalation. This time prominent members of the elite of culture like David Grosman and political left like parliament members of the Merets party sided in public and joined Sheikh Jarrah action that protest verdicts of Israeli courts.

Speaking to the protestors, Grossman said, "Sometimes, it's not possible to sit and be silent. Settlers and the political right aided by the government, the legal system, and economic powers abuse the Palestinians in 1,001 different ways."

At a morning radio program Yosi Sarid - ex-leader of the Merets party said he regret it but he will not be able to return this Friday to the demo in Sheikh Jarrah he participated the previous Friday. (Another Parliament member of this party came instead of him...)

Notice: Settlers are having some of the most extreme right wing activists staying at SJ through Saturday. (They did a counter demo Friday but it was small and ridiculous in comparison with our demo on the other side of the road.) We need people to come and hang out and stay.

In Sheikh Jarrah there was yet another big demonstration, and for the first time in quite a while – with no arrests made at all. After several weeks of ongoing police oppression the Jerusalem court issued two rulings in support of the demonstrations, stating these were legal and that their dispersal was illegitimate. And so some 300 demonstrators gathered this Friday afternoon at the entrance to the neighborhood, including several members of Knesset, and protested against the racist house evictions. (Half, Israelis from west Jerusalem, nearly half from Tel Aviv region, Palestinians from the neighborhood, and media too... may who few hours earlier participated in other demod.) Placards, banners, and chanting were a plenty. Among the chants: "SJ protests will be the beginning of the 3rd intifada".

Opposite the demonstration stood tens of riot policemen, and five radical right-wing counter-demonstrators. A short heated debate with the fascists and a failed (by the police) attempt made by a few demonstrators to enter the neighborhood and plant flowers were the only two extraordinary events. Otherwise the cheerful and energetic demonstration went on peacefully for an hour and a half.

In the last weeks military forces in south Mt. Hebron are constantly engaged in driving away Palestinian shepherds and farmers from their lands. In many places shepherds told us they no longer dare going to their lands without our accompaniment. They need us with them. Therefore, this Saturday, 30 January, we shall go there again to accompany shepherds in various locations in South Mt. Hebron.

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The minimal pressure of the imperial power on Israel to soften its pressures applied to the would be transfered Palestinians of the 1967 occupied areas have its results (more in the west bank than in the Gaza Ghetto). The about 100.000 Palestinians of the occupied territories are employed by Israelis. Most of the roadblocks were removed. The rebellion of the Palestinians in the west bank is channeled mostly through a small minority of activists in the joint and separate week end activities. People are like holding their breath to see if the culminated crisis in the international arena will yield a significant break throw. Mean time, the persistent week end struggles - though in a diminished intensity in Bil'in, Ma'asara, Ni'ilin, Nabi Saleh, Qaddum, South of Hebron Hills, Sheik Jarrah... with sporadic struggles in other locations. [Italiano]

The approaching victory in the struggle to block the advance of the Zionist settler colonialist project and even to force it to retreat a bit do not make the real good people to like the enrolling of history. The approaching defeat make the Israeli elite take desperate steps and do its atrocities in the open. The efforts to transfer the Bedouins within 1948 borders and villagers in 1967 occupied territories escalate. The diminishing support of Israel by the imperial power due to changes in the dynamics of the region, world public opinions and economic losses it cause gradually change the power balance within the Israeli capitalist elite that may be expressed in the coming elections. On the ground, the joint struggle in Bil'in, Ni'lin, Ma'sara, Nebi Saleh, Sheikh Jarrah, Qaddum, and South Of Hebron Hills, is gradually expanding to other locations even without the "shield" of Israeli activists. [Italiano]

The old world order, in which US interests in the region East of the Mediterranean let Israel - a bastion of the US - continue with its Zionist settler colonialist in the 1967 occupied Palestine, has ended. Europe has started to advance its own interests, which are not in accord with the Israeli bastion. The independent steps of Europe are enhanced by its public opinion against Israeli colonialism to which the joint struggle in the West Bank contributes a lot. It was the approach of the imminent crisis that forced the Israeli Prime minister to call for elections, to save himself from the normally-timed election when the crisis would be the main agenda. The murder of the Palestinian minister of the popular struggles has focused attention on the ferment and rising of the popular non-armed struggles of which Israel is contemplating suppression with systematic use of live ammunition. [Italiano]

Israel was built mainly by the national socialists who owned 75% of the economy in 1949. Due to dependence on the imperial powers the so-called socialist elite invested a lot in building the Zionist-capitalist elite to which it lost power in 1977. Conflicts of interest within the Zionist-capitalist elite started to change the balance between the small tycoons section that supported the Zionist wish to transfer the Palestinians out and the capitalist section that integrated in the neo-liberal globalization who wish to exploit the Palestinians and the workers of neighboring countries. The restructuring of power relations in global capitalism after the last crisis had its Israeli expression in the near-bankruptcy of the tycoon elite and the present collapse of the government coalition. The economic damage which has already resulted from the B.D.S. campaign which is enhanced by the joint struggle seems to be hastening a shift in the balance of powers.

By Zaher Baher from Haringey Solidarity Group and Kurdistan Anarchists Forum

Below is the outcome of my visit to Northern Kurdistan in Turkey between 02/11/14 to 08/11/14 as one of a delegation from United Kingdom, organised by Peace in Kurdistan Campaign (PIK), People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and Democratic Society Congress (DTK).

The popular unarmed struggle of Palestinian communities joined by the Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall and others is not a struggle for the "national liberation" or "self determination" of the Palestinian nation. It is the struggle of Palestinian people, of which the overwhelming majority are working people, against the threat of transfer and the suppression and exploitation by the Israeli Zionist settler colonialist project. None of those involved in the struggle who are not in the Palestinian elite have illusions about the Palestinian elite and the state they will rule and manage after the end of the occupation. None of those involved in the struggle believe that the end of the direct occupation will solve the 1948 Nakba and the refugee problems. However, they still prefer the end of the occupation and independence from Israel, over direct Israeli rule, as it will not be an agent of transfer or of such brutal suppression and exploitation. [Italiano]

The war on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip continues for the 13th day. Demonstrations against Israeli warmongering continue both in Israel and throughout the world. All that Israel wants in this war that it has initiated is to thwart a Palestinian unity government and curb the peace agreements it might speed up. The danger of Hamas' surrender to the Palestinian Authority in the heels of its economic crisis has resulted from the actions of the new Egyptian government, which seriously threatens the project of splitting the Palestinians, something that Israel has invested extraordinary efforts in. Only the total collapse of Hamas rule in Gaza scares Israel more than that. However, due to internal problems among the Israel political elite and public opinion, the government refrained from revealing the true nature of the war, which is to stabilize independent Hamas rule in Gaza and prevent the need for Hamas to surrender to the Palestinian Authority of the West Bank. So, instead the Israeli government has exaggerated the reports about attacks against Hamas and is hiding the real agenda - the obstruction of Palestinian unity. [Italiano]

When the European pressure on Israel to compromise with the Palestinian elite collected momentum - already diminishing exports, Israel tried to take advanced of the kidnapped three settlers youth applying "plans from the drawer" trying to ignite armed Intifada. Nearly three weeks of propaganda based on lies (as if they are searching for the already known to them to be dead three youth) was all over the media. When lastly the bodies were "found", lies were exposed, and the harassments failed to ignite Intifada. The mounted hate crimes of the Israeli extreme right and murder of a Palestinian youth of the annexed East Jerusalem ignited an extreme response there and within the Palestinian regions within the 1948 borders. Vicious harassment of US-Palestinian youth - cousin of the murdered youth which was video typed became together with the video of the kidnapped cousin became viral all over the world and ignited solidarity demos all over the world. [Italiano]

Many objections were raised about the participation of Israelis in the non-armed struggle in the areas of Palestine occupied in the 1967 war. Some, mostly Palestinians, regarded it as a contribution to so called "normalization". Others claimed that Israeli activists should do their struggle within the Israeli population of the 1948 borders. Many anarchists raised reservations as the Palestinian popular struggle is a kind of capitalist "national independence struggle" for the self-determination of the Palestinian capitalist elite to monopolize the option for the exploitation of the Palestinian working masses - they just ignore the fact that most Palestinians wish for a bi-national democratic whole Palestine and not for a national Palestinian State. Others just do not take upon themselves the obligation to serve as a life-saving shield, as Israeli policy officially forbids the state forces to shoot to kill when Israelis are supposed to be among the demonstrators. Indigenous people struggle against settler colonialist transfer and marginalization is NOT the same as a national Bourgeoisie for "national independence" or "national self-determination". [Italiano]

Week after week, on weekend and in the week-days to anarchists and other activists insist of leaning our Shoulders on the wheels of history that revolve too slow and push them as much as we can. There is not much of energy in the masses and many activists lost the urge to participate, but still many of us persist and join the meager efforts of the Palestinians who resist the advancing transfer efforts of the Israeli Zionist project and its state forces. The international solidarity activists who join us bring with them the echoes of world wide expanding support and the message that our struggle contribute a lot to it. The frustrated Israeli state forces continue their murderous efforts to extinguish the popular struggle adding live ammunition from time to time like the last week at the demo in Bitunia (near the Ofer concentration camp) but retreat under mounting international pressure. [Italiano]

The Kobane resistance that has passed its 45th day as of now has caused the attention of revolutionaries all over the world to turn to Rojava. As a result of the work carried out by Revolutionary Anarchist Action (DAF), anarchist comrades from many parts of the world have sent messages of solidarity to the Kobane resistance.(1) This internationalist stance without a doubt carries great importance for the people resisting in Kobane. However if we do not analyze what is happening in all its truth and if we romanticize instead, our dreams will turn to disappointment in short order.

The main features of the Syrian revolution are its youthful, spontaneous aspect, and the fact that it was created on the streets and is linked directly to the people. It is a revolution without centralized control, led by insurgent individuals. Consequently, no-one can claim to govern it or lead and the reason is simple: the young insurgents rose up spontaneously and there are no signs of participation by religious elements, whose ideas are extremely reactionary, or indeed by any other tendency. [العربية ]

From 5-15 April 2009, a member of Anarchists Against the Wall, Haggai Matar (well-known also for his anti-militarist work, since he was one of the first of the new wave of political objectors to military service), will be in Italy for a speaking tour with the dual aim of providing updates on the current situation in the struggle against the wall and the occupation, and of collecting funds for the activities of AAtW. If you can, please come to one of the events below. If you are unable to attend but you want to contribute to the work of AAtW, please log on to http://awalls.org/donations for details on how to do so. [Italian]

Anarchists Against the Wall and the Bil'in Popular Committee exemplify the nonviolent resistance to the Israeli-built "Separation Wall" on Palestinian land, as well as steadfastness in the diverse grass-root campaigns against the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Ahmad Husam Yousef Mousa, 10 years old, was murdered yesterday as he demonstrated together with his friends against the separation wall which is being constructed on the lands of his village Ni'ilin. When Ahmad and his friends reached the construction site the soldiers shot rubber bullets at them and they began to
retreat. At that point one of the soldiers shot a live round at Ahmad's head from a distance of about 10 meters.